Medical Uses. The
Kadukai (gall-nuts) well rubbed with an equal proportion of
catechu is used in aphthous complaints, and considered a
valuable remedy. The unripe dried fruits, which are the Indian
or black myrobalan (Kooroovillah-kadukai, Tam. and Mal.) of old
writers, and which are sold in the Northern Provinces in Bengal,
are recommended as purgative by the natives.—(Ainslie.) The
gall-like excrescences found on the leaves, caused by the
deposited ova' of some insect, are held in great repute as an
astringent by the natives. They are very efficacious remedies in
infantile diarrhoea, the dose for a child under a year old being
one grain every three hours. It has been administered in many
instances with the greatest benefit.—(Pharm. of India.) The
price and supposed efficacy of the fruit increase with the size;
one weighing six tolahs would cost about 20 rupees. It acts
internally as aperient, externally as an astringent application
to ulcers and skin diseases.—Powell's Punj. Prod.

Economic Uses.—The
outer coat of the fruit of this tree mixed with sulphate of iron
makes a very durable ink. The galls are found on the leaves, and
are produced by insects puncturing the tender leaves. With thorn
and alum the best and most durable yellow is dyed, and in
conjunction with ferruginous mud, black is procured from them.
The fruit is very astringent, and on that account much used by
the Hindus in their arts and manufactures. The timber is good,
of a yellowish-brown colour. It is used for agricultural
purposes and for building. It attains its full size in thirty
years.—Roxb."

The chebulic myrobalan
was highly Extolled by the ancient Hindus as a powerful
alterative and tonic. It has received the names of Prāṇadā,
or life-giver, Sudhā or nectar, Bhiṣakpriya or
physician's favourite and so forth. So highly esteemed was this
plant by the ancient Hindus, that a mythological origin has been
attributed to it. It is said that when Indra was drinking nectar
in heaven, a drop of the fluid fell on the earth and produced
the haritaki plant. Seven varieties of haritaki
are described by Sanskrit writers, the distinctions being
founded upon the shape, colour and marks on the outer covering
of the fruits. At the present day, however, two varieties only
are recognised, namely, the large ripe fruit called haritaki,
and the unripe dried fruit called jangi haritaki in the
vernacular. A good haritaki fit for medicinal use should
be fresh, smooth, dense, heavy and rounded in shape. Thrown into
water it should sink in it. Haritaki fruits weighing four
tolās and upwards, are also considered fit for use, although
they may not possess some of the above-mentioned properties. The
seeds are rejected and their coats only are used in medicine.
Those fruits which have small seeds and abundant cortex are
preferred.

Chebulic myrobalans
are described as laxative, stomachic, tonic and alterative. They
are used in fevers, cough, asthma, urinary diseases, piles,
intestinal worms, chronic diarrhoea, costiveness, flatulence,
vomiting, hiccup, heart diseases, enlarged spleen and liver,
ascites, skin diseases, etc. In combination with emblic and
belleric myrobalans, and under the name of triphalā or
the three myrobalans, they are extensively used as adjuncts to
other medicines in almost all diseases.

Two or three chebulic
myrobalans, rubbed into a paste and taken with a little rock
salt, act as a mild laxative. The following compound decoction
called Pathyādi kvātha is also much used as a purgative.
Take of chebulic myrobalans, pulp of Cassia fistula
(āragbadha), root of Pricrorrhiza Kurroa (katuki),
root of Ipomoea Turpethum (trivrit) and emblic
myrobalans, equal parts, in all two tolās, and prepare a
decoction in the usual way. Dose, two to four ounces. Bengali
practitioners now a days often add senna and rhubarb to the
above preparation, but these last were not known to the ancient
writers, and are not mentioned in. their works.

As an alterative tonic
for promoting strength, preventing the effects of age and
prolonging life, chebulic myrobalan is used in a peculiar way.
One fruit is taken every morning with salt in the rainy season,
with sugar in autumn, with ginger in the first half of the cold
season, with long pepper in the second half, with honey in
spring, and with treacle in the two hot months. These adjuncts
are supposed to agree best with the humours that are liable to
be deranged in the different seasons. This old device for
prolonging life is still believed in, and acted upon, by some
superstitious elderly native gentlemen.

Numerous preparations
of haritaki for special diseases are described in books,
such as the Amrita haritaki for dyspepsia, Danti
haritaki for enlargements in the abdomen called gulma,
Bhrigu haritaki in cough, Agasti haritaki in
consumption, Dasamuli haritaki in anasarca, etc.

Amrita haritaki
is thus prepared. One hundred large sized chebulic myrobalans
are boiled in butter-milk, and their seeds are taken out. Four
tolās each of long pepper, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon,
plumbago root, root of Piper Ghaba (chavikā), the five
salts, ājowan, and the seeds of Seseli Indicum,
(vanayamāni), yavakshāra, sarjiākshāra, borax, asafoetida
and cloves, are reduced to powder, and soaked for three days
respectively in a decoction of tamarind and in lemon juice. This
mixture is introduced within the seedless myrobalans, which are
then exposed to the sun and dried. One of these prepared
myrobalans is directed to be taken every morning for the relief
of various sorts of dyspepsia and indigestion. Danti haritaki
will be described under Baliospermum montanum. The other
preparations of chebulic myrobalans are not much in vogue at
present."